Episode Eight: Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller with Ladislao Loera

What Amy’s reading - Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire: https://seananmcguire.com/aan.php 

• The correct pronunciation is "SHAWN-in," with the stress on the first syllable: https://seananmcguire.com/generalfaq.php#pronounce

What Kate is reading - ​​Stress-Free Potty Training: A Commonsense Guide to Finding the Right Approach for Your Child, by Sara Au and Peter Stavinoha Ph.D.: https://www.harpercollinsleadership.com/9780814436660/stress-free-potty-training/ 

Ladislao is a given name, and a variant of Vladislav, which means "one who owns a glory" or also just "famous".

Ladi is the Creative/Artistic Director/Producer at Testify, a monthly storytelling show in Austin, TX now in its 11th year.

• Next show is "I've Got the Music in Me" at The Barrel O'Fun in the Alamo Drafthouse Mueller on May 2nd: https://www.testifyatx.com/upcoming-shows

• Past stories: https://www.testifyatx.com/testify-storyteller-videos

• Tell a story: https://www.testifyatx.com/submissions

H-E-B is “Texas' favorite grocery store” - serving the Lone Star State since 1905. Founded by Florence Butt in Kerrville, TX, the name today comes from her youngest son Howard Edward Butt, who took over the store and led its expansion into south and central Texas. The headquarters are located in downtown San Antonio, and H-E-B operates now operates over 300 stores in 150+ communities across Texas and more than 50 locations in Mexico.

• In order to comply with Ladi’s HEB requirement, Steve can live between McKinney, TX and Brownsville, TX, and Carthage, TX and Odessa, TX: 

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller was published by Simon and Schuster in 2020. Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a wondrous fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Why-Fish-Dont-Exist/Lulu-Miller/9781501160349 

• David Starr Jordan, who the book is about, was a taxonomist and ichthyologist credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. He was also the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. To learn more, you should probably read Lulu's book.

• Lulu Miller is the cohost of Radiolab, cofounder of NPR’s Invisibilia, host of the kids podcast Terrestrials, and author of the bestselling book Why Fish Don’t Exist. https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Lulu-Miller/2118197048 

• Read the full excerpt: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_df5fb106932c4d01b0eec9b8b5b54e78~mv2.png

The Dandelion Principle was introduced by Robert Austin and Thorkil Sonne as a new approach to managing people: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-dandelion-principle-redesigning-work-for-the-innovation-economy/

There has been so so much written on Joss Whedon and allegations against him, here are a couple of comprehensive links:

• https://www.vulture.com/article/joss-whedon-allegations.html;

• https://www.vulture.com/2021/05/complete-timeline-joss-whedon-allegations.html 

  • However, he is certainly not the first or last director / auteur / “genius” to exhibit these qualities or mistreat his actors:

    • https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/imransiddiquee/hollywood-abusive-auteur-problem;

    • https://www.buzzfeed.com/jonathansim/directors-going-too-far-on-movie-sets;

    • https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/abusive-directors-art-hiding/

  • The role of “director” really emerged in 19th century theatre, taking the place of the “actor / manager”.

Some of Ladi’s favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes include: Once More With Feeling, The Zeppo, Hush, Phases, and Family

The term eugenics was coined by the cousin of Charles Darwin, Francis Galton to mean a science that hoped to “improve” the human species through “the self-direction of evolution”. This is not where that actually led, but rather forced sterilization and genocide. As Ladi mentions, the Nazis did not invent eugenics, and teh concept was actually quite popular until the post-Holocaust / WWII association with Nazis. 

• As the founding president of Stanford was an active supporter of eugenics, it is no surprise that it is quite intertwined with the history of Stanford: 

  • https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/07/stanfords-history-with-eugenics/

  • https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3ef5fd4817ef442792cf359b3e7c05cc 

So Kate is poorly paraphrasing an episode of the Good Place - Season 3, Episode 3, "The SnowPlow: “Here’s my guess. As humans evolved the first big problem we had to overcome was me vs. us – learning to sacrifice a little individual freedom for the benefit of a group. Like sharing food and resources so we don’t starve or get eaten by tigers – things like that. The next problem to overcome was us vs. them – trying to see other groups different from ours as equal. That one we’re still struggling with. That’s why we still have racism and nationalism and why fans of Stone Cold Steve Austin hate fans of The Rock."

• This seems to be rooted in the social comparison theory developed by Leon Festinger? Maybe? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_comparison_theory

Fun fact! Fetal cells migrate into the mother during hrough the placenta and can be found even decades later!: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2633676/ 

• Kate’s dermatologist has suggested that this is what cause her immune system to become overly stimulated and give her eczema. 

The Fifth Dimension performing "Up, Up and Away": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKkNlwpajNk 

Etymology of the modern word grace: From Middle English grace, from Old French grace (modern French grâce), from Latin grātia (“kindness, favour, esteem”), from grātus (“pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to praise, welcome”); compare grateful. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grace

Thank you, Drew Allen, for being our first Patreon supporter! https://www.patreon.com/FindingGoodBones 

Ladi’s face:

Request a recommendation on a selection of writing picked by Kate and Amy just for you: https://www.findinggoodbones.com/contact